Validation of the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire Among Student and Nonstudent Young Adults

The Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (BYAACQ) is a widely used measure designed to assess alcohol-related consequences experienced by young adults, but little psychometric work has been done outside of college student populations. The primary goal of this study was to investigate if there were group differences between nonstudents (i.e., those without any postsecondary education) and college students (i.e., currently enrolled in a 4-year institution) on the BYAACQ in terms of (a) the "difficulty" level of a consequence based on endorsement and (b) the association between each consequence and the underlying overall level of consequences. Participants were 724 young adult drinkers (M-age = 20.40, SD = 2.19; 58.8% female) who was either a student currently enrolled in a 4-year college (n = 560; 77.3%) or a nonstudent if they had no current or prior college attendance (n = 164; 22.7%) that completed a survey in-person. A confirmatory factor analysis supported the unidimensional structure of the BYAACQ for both students and nonstudents. Differential item functioning (DIF) analyses indicated that six items showed significant DIF in the item difficulty parameters, with college students more likely to experience social- and short-term health-related alcohol consequences, while nonstudents more likely to experience consequences related to impaired control and dependence. Thus, using the latent or sum scores of the entire scale could be problematic, as this overall score is unable to capture specific differences in the types of alcohol consequences experienced between college students and nonstudents. Implications for interventions are discussed. Public Health Significance This study suggests that although the unidimensional Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (BYAACQ) was psychometrically supported among college students and nonstudents, items were differentially endorsed between the two groups. Specifically, college students were more likely to endorse social- and short-term health-related alcohol consequences from the BYAACQ, while nonstudents were more likely to experience consequences related to impaired control and dependence. Assessing specific BYAACQ items may have clinical utility for young adults.